


Some of it's magic, Some of it's tragic

by llparallell



Series: Hedgie Dilemma [2]
Category: EXO (Band), 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Blood, Fluff, Friendship, Humor, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-12
Updated: 2018-06-21
Packaged: 2019-03-04 00:32:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13352742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/llparallell/pseuds/llparallell
Summary: "What do you think about omegas, Jeongguk?" Taehyung asks softly.Jeongguk's smile is forced and says more than when he answers, "Haven't met one yet."





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> \- The title is from the lyrics of "He Went to Paris" by Jimmy Buffet  
> \- This is part 2 of a series. Nothing will make sense if you haven't read part 1  
> \- Enjoy! :D

Namjoon is sitting in his armchair next to a roaring fireplace when Byun Baekhyun arrives with five or so men. Out of the corner of his eye, Namjoon can see that the last tiny bit of smoldering information on the locker system has disappeared. However, he dares not heave a sigh of relief. 

Baekhyun grins. “Hi.”

Namjoon smiles back. “Hello.” There is a stainless carafe of coffee and two mugs next to him, one of which is filled and in Namjoon’s hands, and the other, empty.

“I didn’t expect to see you here at 7 a.m.” Baekhyun strolls over, and with one hand in his pocket, serves himself some coffee in the empty mug. 

“I’m an early riser.” Namjoon sighs. Winter has longer nights and shorter days compared to the summer. One entire wall of his office is a huge pane of glass. It lets in dawn’s pink and blue shades, reflecting in a surreal color on Baekhyun’s pale cheek. 

“I’m guessing you know what I’m here for.” Taking a seat opposite Namjoon, Baekhyun gazes at the fire. 

“Enlighten me.”

And slowly, Baekhyun leans forward. “I know what you’re doing.” He whispers, and his eyes glint dangerously. “I know what you have done and what you are planning, Kim Namjoon. I advise you to be very, very careful.” He leans one elbow on the armrest of the seat and tips his mug, making the coffee contents splash onto the rug and leave a dark mark. “One mistake, and I might invite you to shoot one of those omegas in the head.” 

Namjoon gazes at the dark mark on the carpet, then nods at Baekhyun. “Yeah. I look forward to it.”

Baekhyun chuckles, sets the emptied mug atop the fireplace and leaves. 

  
  
  
  
  


Taehyung is trying very hard not to slip in the icy path. Jeongguk had offered to come pick him, but Taehyung had responded “You live on top of a hill. Going back up by car might be impossible with all this snow falling.” 

_ “Then… please careful on your way up here. Or seonbae, maybe we can meet some time when it isn’t freaking blizzarding outside.”  _

“Jeongguk! School is starting in two days! I’m coming right now, and we’re gonna bake cookies.” 

Because of that, Taehyung is currently lugging a very large bag behind him full of random stuff Jimin keeps in the house, from reindeer sprinkles to cake flour. It’s a ten-minute uphill walk, and by the time Taehyung arrives, he’s exhausted.

His finger is just hovering above the bell when Jeongguk whips open the door. “HOLY-” Taehyung shrieks, only to have Jeongguk whisk him out of the cold and into the warmth of his arms.

The door slams behind him, and Taehyung laughs breathlessly against Jeongguk’s neck. He gets a mouthful of the yarn of his scarf that he’s used to cover his face, but Jeongguk helps him pull it down and away from his face. “How’d you know I was here?” Taehyung asks, smiling like his face is about to break. 

Jeongguk beams. “I was keeping an eye out for you as soon as you said you were coming.” His hands are warm, edging on hot when they tenderly cup Taehyung’s rosy, cold cheeks. A blush works its way up Taehyung’s face, but the already-present flush from the cold air outside works to cover it. 

“What did you tell Jimin hyung?” Jeongguk gasps as Taehyung pulls out an entire bag of flour, white sugar, brown sugar, butter, oil, whiter and smaller sugar (which Taehyung later explains is confectioner’s sugar) chocolate chips, toffee chips, and last but not least, reindeer sprinkles.

“I didn’t. He’s busy at the cafe.” 

Where this secrecy thing came from, was their mutual agreement two days after CS60A grades were released. They made one rule to their relationship.

Taehyung had looked so destitute as he suggested his rule that day. “No publicizing our relationship.” He swallows, apologizing. “I’m sorry. It’s just that… I don’t want either of us to be the subject of gossip.” Well, being the center of attention was the lesser of the problem. Just imagining how Jimin would react was enough to send chills down his spine. 

Jeongguk had happily approved of this idea. It made complete sense, and in fact, it was something he had wanted himself. Because he was a pure alpha, things could quickly become very annoying if somebody found out. Apparently, that was why Yoonoh and Seulgi never met up on campus, and instead, essentially lived together on the weekends. 

“Do you have something to suggest yourself?” Taehyung had asked.

And Jeongguk had shaken his head, “No.” 

Today, the two had gotten together two days before Christmas, because both of them had ‘family’ stuff on Christmas Eve and on Christmas. Tomorrow, Jeongguk was going to go and look pretty at the pure alpha Christmas Eve party, and Taehyung was going to be partying with Jimin and the Brewed Awakening folks.

Jeongguk has never baked. He cooks for himself and makes extraordinary chicken alfredo (Taehyung knows because that was what Jeongguk served the first time Taehyung ever came over). But he’s the type of person that does everything by eye. Too salty? More cream. Too bland? More pepper and salt.

Jeongguk stares at the five measuring cups and six measuring spoons. “That seems hardly necessary.”

Of course, he quickly realizes he’s wrong because it’s hard to tell the difference between ⅓ cup and ½ cup by eye. 

An hour later, Jeongguk’s cheek is dusted with flour where he scratched an itch absent-mindedly, and there are freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies on the cooling rack. Taehyung is making some sugar cookie dough on the side, and has put it in the fridge to chill. 

“Whoo.” Jeongguk sighs, leaning back into his chair with his hands in pink flowery oven mitts. He immediately perks up when Taehyung reaches in front of him to try one. 

His eyes follow the cookie as it enters Taehyung’s mouth. “Mhm. It’s good.” The result is positive, and Jeongguk feels his heart thrum from the praise. “Here. Try it.” Taehyung picks a particularly smaller cookie and holds it out for Jeongguk to take. Just as Jeongguk is reaching for it, Taehyung coyly takes it back, places it in his mouth, and holds it between his teeth. He grins, eyes curving prettily from the smile. 

Jeongguk’s lips quirk into a small smile. He reaches for Taehyung’s jaw and takes the cookie out of Taehyung’s mouth. While Taehyung is still taken aback, the alpha leans in, and kisses him.

It’s chaste at first, Jeongguk’s eye meeting Taehyung’s at such close distance in a query.  _ This is fine, right?  _

At that, Taehyung closes his eyes and opens his lips further, and Jeongguk plants an indulgent kiss into his mouth. Just as Taehyung is running out of breath, Jeongguk pulls back just a few mere centimeters, and agrees with him. “It is good.” Jeongguk grins, lips spit-slicked. 

Taehyung laughs breathlessly, leaning in for another kiss, drunk with love. This is the first time they kissed, and it feels like heaven. He can smell hawthorn flowers on Jeongguk’s hands, floral and intense against the side of his neck, and reciprocates eagerly by running his fingers through Jeongguk’s hair, silky and soft. Jeongguk bites on his lower lip, teasing it and he almost moans-

The bell rings.

Taehyung jumps back, as Jeongguk whips around to look at the door.

It rings again.

A red hot flush starts at Taehyung’s face when he hears Yoonoh’s voice outside the door. “Maybe he’s not there. I told you we should have called him!”

Jeongguk pinches the bridge of his nose as Yugyeom snarks to Yoonoh, “He doesn’t have a life, Yoonoh. His car’s here, and it’s blizzarding. He’s probably in there.” His voice is louder when he addresses Jeongguk. “Jeongguk! If you don’t want two human icicles outside your door in the morning you’d better open the door!”

Taehyung purses his lips, brows furrowing. It really is cold outside... but, 

Jeongguk sighs. “...seonbae, I’ll tell them I have a guest over and ask them to leave after serving something warm. You can stay in my room, if you want”

“Sounds good.” Taehyung whispers, and goes into Jeongguk’s room and locks the door.

Outside, Jeongguk unlatches his door, and the cacophony of two college students coming in from the cold is loud and unruly. 

“Ahhh, warmth!!! AND COOKIES?!!!!” Yoonoh gasps.

“Fuck, I can’t feel my toes!! What took you so long?! Were you jerking off?!!”

Oh. Taehyung tries to not imagine, but once the idea caught in his brain, he can’t stop staring at Jeongguk’s bed. 

Meanwhile, Jeongguk is as placid as a lake. Which is how he usually sounds when he’s a bit annoyed.  Taehyung knows he probably has a smile on his face, daring anybody to refuse him.

“I was baking as you can see, Gyeom. Feel free to have some, but,” Jeongguk’s voice drops to a threatening tone. “I have a guest over- they’re hiding in my room right now, so if you guys could please leave in a few minutes…”

The entire house goes silent.

“Guest. Is this your crush you were trying to ask out?” Yunnoh asks, voice hushed and eyes glued to the door. He’s all giggly and delighted until his eyes pick up on the backpack propped up in the corner of the living room, and his mind blanks.

Yugyeom is simply smitten. “Oh my!!!! Love at Christmas time!!!! Hey, can we just say hi to them?” 

“No.” Jeongguk says. “You guys probably came in a car- I know you have snow chains, Yugyeom.”

“Don’t be so cold to your bestest friends in the world!!” Yugyeom shrieks, while Yoonoh tries to make eye contact with Jeongguk. He’s making little hissy noises, looking at Jeongguk, then at the corner where a backpack is propped up. 

Yoonoh’s seen it every week during CS60A recitation, when Taehyung lugged it in and set it on the desk before every section. Jeongguk follows Yoonoh’s gaze, and he realizes. 

Unfortunately, Yugyeom is sharp. He whips around, following Jeongguk’s gaze, at the backpack in the corner. Even more unfortunately, he’s pretty smart and he’s good at putting two and two together. The owner of the backpack is the person Jeongguk asked out and is someone both Jeongguk and Yoonoh know who was in a position where Jeongguk had to ask him out after the last day of exams. The last day of exams was all consisted of upper-div STEM class finals, which means this person was an upperclassman who was somehow affiliated with CS60A, such as the position of a “TA.” Yugyeom whispers. “It’s your TA.”  

Yoonoh hiccups, and Jeongguk tips his head back and sighs. 

Taehyung startles when there’s a soft knock on the door. “Seonbae, it’s me.”

Taehyung peeks out. “They found out.” Jeongguk sighs. “They recognized your backpack.” 

Yoonoh waves shyly and cautiously. “Hi, Taehyung seonbae.”

Yugyeom on the other hand, the melodramatic maniac, is lecturing Jeongguk. “You can’t call your boyfriend, seonbae!! Why the fuck are you being so formal?!” 

Jeongguk rolls his eyes and pulls Taehyung by the hand to sit him on the couch. “Well, the cat’s out of the bag.” He tells Taehyung, interlacing his fingers with his, and Taehyung’s neck colors. 

“Oh, I guess uh… it’s fine?” 

“I won’t tell anybody!” Yoonoh raises his hand and eagerly pronounces, “Seonbae, I’m dating Kang Seulgi! We’re kinda in the same boat.”

Yugyeom starts chortling. “Jesus christ, should we call Kang Seulgi over? She lives in my building.”

Jeongguk sighs, and gazes at Taehyung. Even though they’ve been together only for the past two weeks, Taehyung finds it really easy for him to sense what Jeongguk wants. His scent is yielding, asking Taehyung to make the decision. “I have sugar cookie dough in the fridge right now.” He decides, cheeks coloring. “We can bake and decorate them, if you guys want.”

So it is. Yugyeom has brought some cider, eggnog, and mulled wine, and Yoonoh has fucking brought a small fondue machine, a baguette, a box of graham crackers, and some marshmallows. 

As Jeongguk rolls out the thick sugar cookie dough, Yugyeom is prepared with two cookie cutters in each hand on the side. While Yugyeom attacks the dough with some santa-shaped cookie cutters, Yoonoh apologizes. “Sorry about the sudden intrusion.”

Jeongguk shrugs. “Eh. The harm’s done already.”

Taehyung grins. “Well, I don’t mind.” 

  
  
  
  


Somehow, Taehyung makes it back to his apartment right before Jimin closes the cafe. He tiptoes upstairs to their apartment and is washing the various baking utensils when Jimin comes in. 

“You baked?” Jimin looks surprised because Taehyung usually is too lazy to do such a thing.

“Yep.” Taehyung pops the end of his answer. 

“Can I have one?” 

Taehyung nods at a plate on the table, and sets the last utensil on the drying rack. “There’s some over there.”

Jimin takes a star-shaped cookie, and walks over to the couch. His limp is worse today, as it usually is during cold and damp seasons. When Taehyung approaches with a heating pad and some warm water and sakura tea in a mug, Jimin’s absolutely grateful. “You’re the best.” He says as Taehyung rubs out the kinks in his sore leg.

“Any highlights of the day?” Taehyung questions, and Jimin smells chocolate, sugar, and apples on his breath. 

“Nah, just really, really busy. What about you?”

“I got high off sugar and watched some netflix.” Taehyung shrugs.

“Don’t forget to order your suppressants.” Jimin says, and Taehyung blinks in alarm. 

“Oh shoot I forgot. I gotta take them for today. How do you remember these things when you’re not the one taking them?”

Jimin lets out a bemused chuckle as Taehyung scrambles up. The rug crimps a little when Taehyung slides on it as he stands. Jimin pats it flat and hears Taehyung lift the tile off to take his suppressant for the day. Taehyung swallows one of the last remaining pills as he looks thoughtfully at the E-pills individually packaged in plastic.

After a moment of thinking, he pops all of them out and puts them in a single bottle, because the last time he had tried to get one out when he was panicking, it had been a little difficult. 

He wraps a single E-Pill in saran wrap and squooshes it in into the corner of his phone case where it’ll be always on him when he needs it. He then gets on his computer in the living room and submits an order. Jimin rolls twice to get to Taehyung, and briefly counts on his fingers. 

“That’s your January, February, and March batch, right?”

“Yep. It usually arrives in three days.” Taehyung thinks back, and immediately, is distracted when he sees an e-mail from Professor Lim. 

Taehyung stares at the email. Jimin, meanwhile, is stretching out his sore leg, completely unaware that Taehyung has frozen and looks absolutely shocked.

“Jimin.” He whispers. “Professor Lim wants to take the team to the national science conference with our findings.”

Jimin looks up from his phone, eyes wide. “Really? That’s awesome!!!! Where’s it being held this year?”

“Not sure, but he says we’ll be reimbursed for plane tickets.”

“When?”

“Spring break! That’s perfect, since we can't possible go during the school days.”

Jimin gives him a huge grin. “What will you be doing there?”

Taehyung types around, eyes bright with excitement. “I don’t think anything in particular. I’m actually not sure, but Professor Lim believes in science, and in further education. Maybe he wants this trip to serve as an inspiration for the undergrad? Otherwise, we undergrad wouldn’t need to go…”

  
  
  


Taehyung wonders how he should tell Jeongguk about this good news. He even wonders if he needs to share it right now, when the news itself has barely anything to do with Jeongguk. 

However, he forgets about this worry when he sees Jeongguk’s schedule. “You’re taking 60B and 60C together?” He whispers, absolutely horrified.

Jeongguk looks confused. “What.”

“You’re crazy- this is going to work only if you can code in your sleep!” Taehyung hisses.

“I don’t know. Maybe I can? This is an opportunity to try it.” Jeongguk jokes, only to have Taehyung shake his head. “No. At least take a math requirement if you want to major in comp sci. That’d be easier. This is nuts.”

“I want to take upper divs.” Jeongguk says. “With you.”

Taehyung flushes and Jeongguk thinks it’s so cute that he would have pecked Taehyung on the lips had they not been in a cafe. Looking immensely flustered, Taehyung flails. “Why?! You have three more years!”

“Well, you’re trying to graduate in three years, so technically, if I declare in a year-”

“That’s not what Taemin meant when he said I declared in a year. I took 60A my first semester, B my second, and C during the summer to come in declared last semester.”

“Just help me out if I run into strange bugs.”

Jeongguk just laughs, and Taehyung finally has to let out a resigned chuckle because right now, Jeongguk is looks genuinely happy.

“I thought I smelled phytoncide around here.” Yugyeom chirps out of nowhere. Taehyung freaks out and nearly falls off his seat. Yugyeom quickly scoots forward to push Taehyung back upright onto the bench with his stomach while waving at Jeongguk.

Jeongguk nods at him. “Hi.”

“We gotta go to POLISCI 1B, Jeongguk.”

“Oh, you’re right.” Jeongguk puts everything back in his bag, and looks at Taehyung, lovingly. It’s a public space so they can’t really hold hands or anything, but the scent of flowers is all it takes for Taehyung to feel loved. So loved.

“I’ll see you at lunch!” Taehyung says. “I’ll probably be sitting with some comp sci people, but join us, okay?”

Jeongguk nods, and walks away with Yugyeom. 

  
  
  
  


Jimin has been noticing Taehyung acting slightly strangely. He’s really glowing, really happy, super enthusiastic, but barely in the apartment. Jimin had asked Hoseok how Taehyung was, and Hoseok’s reply was, “He’s pretty much the same. We still hang out.”

“Does he… have a girlfriend? Or a boyfriend?”

Hoseok perks up. “He does?!”

“I’m asking you, hyung!”

“Well, he seems to be with Jeon Jeongguk a lot…” Hoseok recalls the two sitting side by side. Alarm bells go off in Jimin’s head, but Hoseok continues, “but he’s so busy with research stuff, he practically lives with Yoongi, and then spends the rest of the time studying with people in his classes.”

So. When Taehyung comes into the apartment nearly at midnight, Jimin looks for signs “Ah, geez, I’m tired!!” Taehyung shouts, and falls face-down onto the sofa. 

Jimin smells something familiar but something he can’t really pin the scent of. “Oh. How was it today?”

“I saw Namjoon seonbae in labs! You know, our student government president?” Taehyung sighs. “He’s so cool.”

“Namjoon-ssi is in your research team?”

“He’s in the math team, under the same PI.”

When Taehyung goes into the bathroom to wash up, Jimin sniffs Taehyung’s coat. At that moment, Taehyung’s phone vibrates with a text, and Jimin considers just looking at it to see who it is- but that would be invasion of privacy. Jimin shakes his head, sits back on the sofa, and tries to digest what he had just smelled.

An alpha’s pheromones on Taehyung’s coat. It could easily happen, if Taehyung bumped into an alpha on his way back. So what is it?

Taehyung comes out of the bathroom with damp hair, rubbing it dry. Jimin watches his roommate reach into his coat pocket, pull out his phone, and  _ grin _ at whatever’s on it. Jimin narrows his eyes, and throws a sentence as a joke. “Is it your boyfriend?” 

Usually, Taehyung is very good at hiding his emotions. He’s trained himself to do so, and is a master at it. However, if it’s Jimin he has to hide in front of, it’s impossible. “You saw my phone?!!!” He chokes.

“No, your coat smells like an alpha.” Jimin responds, mentally scoring himself vs. Taehyung as 1 to 0. Taehyung isn’t denying what he said, so the person who texted him is an alpha boyfriend. Now, to get the alpha’s  _ name.  _ “What did he do that makes you… reek like him?”

“He didn’t do anything!” Taehyung says indignantly, only to shrink back when Jimin gives him  _ the  _ look. “We hugged.” Okay, that’s one point: 2 to 0. Still no name.

And Jimin is worried. Being angry is one thing, but dating an alpha is just… “Is he okay? Is he trustworthy, Taehyung? What if he’s one of those assholes who take advantage-”

“Jeongguk isn’t like that!” Ah. There it is, the K.O. point. But, Jimin is terrified. When Jimin is terrified, he becomes an aggressive ball of sheer anger. 

“Jeon Jeongguk?! Yah, Kim Taehyung! He’s a pure alpha. Not just a pure alpha- his entire family is the one that made all those anti-omega policies.”

Taehyung winces- it’s something he’s been trying not to link to Jeongguk. Of course he knows Jeongguk is part of the Jeon family. But “that doesn’t mean he’s like them!”

“His father created that policy about banning omegas’ right to healthcare which cut off all the legal routes to getting suppressants.” Jimin is horrified. “What do you think the bastard’s son is going to be like?!”

Taehyung shakes his head, and whispers, “Jimin, it’s not like we’re going to freakin marry. I know this relationship is going to end someday. That’s just what’s going to happen.” Even as he says the things that have been on his mind for such a long time, Taehyung feels horribly, horribly ill. “And while we are in this relationship, I’m going to make the most out of it without letting him know that I’m an omega. I’m going to be on suppressants the entire time, and-”

“What if a car comes to run over both of you? Or a bomb blows up or-”

“I promise,” Taehyung says firmly. “I promise.” 

And although Taehyung can never hide anything from, nor lie to Jimin, he still always wins because Jimin’s too soft. Jimin sighs, and just mutters, “Just don’t get caught then, idiot. That's-" Jimin is cutoff when Taehyung runs into him a big hug that drops both of them onto the floor. 


	2. 2

Namjoon has been seeing Taehyung a lot more now that consolidating the math team’s knowledge by working with the team is his life’s priority. Last semester, Namjoon and Taehyung were in different time slots, but as Namjoon got busier and busier, he started staying in the labs for extended periods of time. 

“Hi, seonbaenim- you’re staying in late today!” Taehyung smiles.

Namjoon chuckles weakly. “There’s a bit more work than I thought.”

“Here’s the folder of the documentation of the code you asked for.” Taehyung hands over a blue folder. “You’ll see that we had to make some changes in the range later on to get clearer data. It doesn’t affect the result though, because we similarly mapped all the results from set B to a single point in the range.” As if he noticed he wasn’t explaining things too clearly, Taehyung scratches his head, and says, “Let us know if there’s something weird. Yoongi hyung and I’ll be in the office for the next few hours.” 

“Thanks!” Namjoon grins. “This is a huge help.”

The way Taehyung smiles in response has Namjoon looking at him longer than was probably appropriate. The overworked alpha quickly turns back to his desk and gets ready on analyzing the documentation. 

  
  
  
  
  


It’s still pretty cold and the roads are still icy. Jeongguk puffs out a small white cloud in the freezing air and heads into the labs. Just as he steps in, however, he sees Taehyung’s back as he avidly explains something to none other than Kim Namjoon. 

Jeongguk still stays a way back, as the two pore over a stack of papers, and he can pick out some words. “Web-crawling…. And outputs… it’s data-scraping here.”

At that moment, somebody opens the door next to him, and Jeongguk realizes it’s Yoongi, walking out of the men’s bathroom. “Oh. Hi.” Yoongi says, and Jeongguk, who’s only seen Yoongi completely drunk at the Halloween party, bows a little. 

“Hi, Yoongi-seonbae.”

“Eh, don’t do that seonbae crap to me. What are you here for, though?” Yoongi asks, and despite his choice of words, the tone he uses is just on the edge of caring and apathetic. 

“I’m here for Taehyung seonbae. We’re supposed to eat lunch together.” The lie slips off easy and smooth. 

“Well, he’s over there.” Yoongi motions to the two men standing side by side, and he grins, crossing his arms together. “Gosh, the math team really must be in crunch time. With the presentation coming up and everything.”

“You guys have to present?”

Yoongi nods, showing a gummy smile and Jeongguk stares because he hadn’t known Yoongi could be capable of such a thing. “We’re all going to the national science conference fair to present this year. Well, Taehyung and I are undergrad so we’ll probably just go to learn.” 

Jeongguk blinks. “Isn’t that in the west this year?”

“Yep. Eight hours by plane. We’re gonna be there for like… 8 days?”

And Jeongguk wonders if Taehyung ever told him about this. “When was this decided?”

Yoongi sucks in a breath between his teeth, thinking. “I think I got the e-mail a week before school started.”

“That’s awesome!” Jeongguk says, and at that moment, Taehyung’s voice calls his name. 

“Jeongguk?”

Jeongguk whips around to get a face full of Taehyung’s shiny smile. “Hi, seonbae!”

“What are you doing here?” Taehyung looks really happy to see him, with Namjoon right behind him, looking pretty natural despite the last time the two of them had seen each other had been at the banquet, as members of rivaling political parties. 

“I heard you’re going to the national conference! Congratulations, isn’t that super prestigious?” Jeongguk grins and Taehyung’s smile falters just a tiny bit. He had been looking forward to tell Jeongguk on his own.

“Yeah, it is.”

When the two of them leave the building on their own, Taehyung stutters, “I was going to tell you, Jeongguk.”

Jeongguk quickly turns around and just grins. “I know, hyung. You would’ve but couldn’t you have told me the good news earlier?” He looks around to make sure no one is around, and hugs Taehyung tightly and quickly. “Congratulations.”

Taehyung flushes so hard, it’s ridiculous. “I- I didn’t do anything! It’s all the grad students and the professor.”

“You contributed.” Jeongguk laughs, “that’s all that matters.” And his scent is his normal tree-like scent, woodsy and calming. Taehyung takes solace in this.

“I’ll let you know next time. I’m just not used to sharing good news.” It isn’t anything wrong, but Taehyung doesn’t like that he feels like he kept something from Jeongguk when legitimately, he wasn’t sure how to tell someone something so spectacular. 

“Don’t worry about it.” Jeongguk smiles. “You don’t need to feel obligated to tell me everything that goes in on your life.” 

When Taehyung hears this, he suddenly feels like there’s an invisible wall between them. He wonders if Jeongguk’s being defensive, putting distance between them just to not feel invalidated.

  
  
  
  
  


However, soon enough, Taehyung doesn’t have enough time to even think about Jeongguk’s psyche. Professor Lim e-mails everybody in the research lab with pretty bad news. The field of science is an ever-changing thing, where a single influential paper can change a good portion of the entire field. It’s rare, but this rare case happened. 

In this case, a research group overseas had released a paper that disproved one of the methods used in their lab results. 

“It’s all okay.” Professor Lim announces to everyone in the team during their emergency meeting. “At least this isn’t Russell’s Paradox.”

Yoongi pipes up from one corner. “What do you mean?”

“Math majors?” Professor Lim tosses the question and Namjoon raises his hand.

Namjoon explains. “Gottlob Frege and Bertrand Russell were mathematicians at the turn of the 20th century. Frege was ready to publish his paper on algebraic mathematics after a decade of research when Russell sent him a really polite letter saying that the theorem that Frege had used as the fundamental block for the rest of his research isn’t true in every case. Frege realized Russell was right, and that his entire research was rather baseless at that point.”

Blood escapes Suran’s and the other grad students’ faces.

“But that didn’t happen!” Namjoon quickly adds, laughing at one of his own graduate mentor, Yuri’s face. 

“If that happened, I’d go fuck a cactus.” Yuri mutters, too low for Professor Lim to hear, but enough for Taehyung to go pale and Yoongi to snort.

“Anyways, this means there are going to be some edits in Chapter 5. Raise your hands, chapter 5 people.”

Taehyung, Namjoon, Yuri, Suran, Taeyeon, Dujun, and Wooyoung raise their hands.

“Ok. Undergrads, you just need to come back out a full 12 hours per week. Also, come out together, because Chapter 5 requires cs and math hand in hand and update us in slack. Grads, sorry, but I promise, promise it’ll be fine in the end.”

Taehyung and Namjoon are fine, because they were coming out the full 12 hours anyways, but the grad students look a bit ill.

  
  
  
  


“So I won’t be free next week anymore.” Taehyung whines at Jeongguk. “I have lab every day from 6 to 8pm now.” 

Jeongguk smiles sadly but immediately brightens when an idea appears in his head. “I can come pick you up and drive you home from now on then.” 

“Huh? But that’s so late for you!”

“It’s the only way I can see you, though.”

Taehyung immediately wraps his arms around Jeongguk’s neck and nuzzles against him. “Okay. Let’s do that. Thank you.”

For Taehyung, it’s a ridiculously productive, work-heavy 3-week period. He goes to classes, does homework, goes to lab after dinner to meet up with Namjoon, and takes Jeongguk’s car back home. 

The undergrad team of Taehyung and Namjoon begins correcting code and analyzing graphs. Taehyung is versatile with basic knowledge in stats, incorporating that into creating better visual data representation for Namjoon to deal with. When something looks off for Namjoon, Namjoon offers a different method of graphing or a different formula that enhances Taehyung’s mathematical and statistical knowledge. 

Meanwhile, Namjoon slowly becomes very fond of his hubae. Despite being busy, Taehyung is always responsible and respectful, going out of his way to make the data easier to read for the graduate students.

“You don’t need to draw margins, Taehyung.” Namjoon points out to Taehyung one day. 

Taehyung looks up at him confusedly. “Am I doing it wrong?”

Namjoon immediately waves his hands. “No, no- that’s not what I mean. It’s technically Yuri seonbae’s job.”

“But Yuri seonbae’s pretty swamped right now. I can do it. It isn’t too hard.” Taehyung smiles. 

It’s not hard, but it’s really fucking time consuming, and Namjoon wonders what Taehyung’s motivation is. People do helpful and good things because they expect something in return. That is a life fact that Namjoon has thought held true in all facets of society. However, it quickly becomes apparent that Taehyung does not think so. He sincerely means to help, and Namjoon slowly falls for his hardworking, kind research lab partner. 

  
  
  
  
  
  


CS 159 is a computer science upper div class on database systems. It is known to be one of the bearable classes, with the exception of its projects. To use Yoongi’s words back from when he took it two semesters ago, “CS 159 teaches you how to add 1 and 1 in its lectures and asks you to manually raise 1024 to the 1024 in its projects.” 

Basically, the projects are easy once you get the concepts, but are time consuming as fuck. Thankfully, Taehyung is in a pretty good team with Hoseok and Taemin on the projects.

Unfortunately, all three of them are also taking CS 158 which is one of those notorious classes that make you regret every single life choice you’ve ever made, including coming to this university and deciding to major in Computer Science.

“We’re done with 158’s project.” Taemin begins. 

“But 159 is due tomorrow at midnight.” Hoseok mutters, the side of his face on the surface of the table.

“Have you guys read the spec?” Taemin asks both of Taehyung and Hoseok, and both nod in response. 

Taehyung scrolls down on his screen, “There are four parts we need to implement for a full score. Parts A and D are pretty minimal, but part C is a monster. I think I’ll start on C if you guys can take care of A, B, and D.”   

“I can do part B.” Hoseok points at the spec on Taehyung’s laptop.

Taemin writes a few bullet points in his notebook. “I’ll get A and D done by tonight- and I’ll pull from your repository and start on C with what you have, Taehyung.”

“Okay. We’ll just merge and fetch as much as we need with part C, then.” Taehyung nods. 

Hoseok squishes his face into the table, voice muffled. “Wow, looks like we’re going to have to pull an all-nighter. This class doesn’t give partial credit, does it.”

Taemin grimaces. “Oh fucking shit, I forgot about that.”

“We have no option then.” Taehyung mutters. “We can do it.”

“We have to. Failing this project means an entire letter grade dropped.” Hoseok points out and Taehyung’s stomach churns uncomfortably.

“Okay, hyungs, keep updating me.” Taehyung says. “I have to go to Lim lab.”

“Oh shit. Taehyung, make sure to eat and stuff.” Hoseok calls after him and Taehyung nods, but knowing he doesn’t really have the time. 

All together, it had been a very very stressful day. Namjoon must have noticed, because he doesn’t crack as many jibes as he usually does. Taehyung is entirely focused on debugging the code and getting it done with so he can start on the 159 project.

And life is a bitch, because that’s when the entire research building loses power. The lab room goes down into darkness, and Taehyung literally freezes in his seat, hands hovering above the keyboard. 

Namjoon frowns. “I think it’s a power outage.”

Had he saved it? Had he saved the file before the power went out? Taehyung bites his lip so hard he almost tastes iron.

“Taehyung? Are you okay?” Namjoon calls as he looks for a flashlight in the closet. 

Had he saved the file? Taehyung feels icy dread engulf him. No he hadn’t, and angry tears of frustration rolled down his cheeks as Namjoon bustled about for batteries this time. “I guess I’ll have to use my calculator batteries for now.” Namjoon mutters to himself and soon enough, the room floods with light from the flashlight.

Namjoon blinks when he sees Taehyung crying and Taehyung quickly wipes his tears away.

“Sorry. Just got frustrated.”

Namjoon shakes his head and sits next to Taehyung to rub circles in his back. “You look like you need some food. Let’s grab some dinner.”

“I don’t have  _ time _ , seonbae. I have so much work. I don’t even know where to begin-” the sheer amount of pressure shuts Taehyung up and he nearly breaks into tears again when Namjoon hugs him hard, and says,

“You’re not going to finish anything like this. Take a deep breath, Taehyung.”

Taehyung does as told, cheeks dampening with tears as he closes his eyes. The scent of bergamot is calming in his tumultuous mind.

“Listen. I know a really good pasta place. We can go there. Then you can go home, take a power nap, and finish what you need to.” 

Taehyung considers it. It’s true. He doesn’t feel like he can achieve anything productive at this point, so he mutters softly, “Okay. I need to make a call to let my ride know I can’t come anymore.”

“Sure.” Namjoon nods. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Jeongguk is already in the research lab parking lot when he gets Taehyung’s call. He picks up almost immediately, wondering why Taehyung would call five minutes before they’re supposed to meet up anyway. 

“What’s up, seonbae?”

_ “I’m sorry it’s short notice, but I think I’ll eat dinner with Namjoon seonbae tonight. It’s closer and we have work to discuss anyways.”  _ Taehyung’s voice is flippant- a bit too cheerful.

That moment, Jeongguk feels a strange feeling in his gut. Jealousy. He hasn’t been seeing Taehyung for longer than thirty minutes a day at a time, but now, Taehyung is going to dinner with Namjoon.

He feels conflicted, but only manages to say, “Oh… yeah. Enjoy yourself.” Just as he disconnects the call, he sees Taehyung and Namjoon leave together. It’s so dark, but they’re so close- almost like Namjoon has one arm around Taehyung’s shoulders as they walk over to his car.

Jeongguk stares at Namjoon’s car pulling out of the parking lot, and suddenly feels a pang of jealousy. He hadn’t told Taehyung about it, but he had secretly been becoming more and more jealous of the amount of interaction between his political rival and his boyfriend. 

It’s petty. He needs to stop being so fucking petty. Taehyung is his own person, and if he wants to eat with Namjoon tonight, then that’s what Taehyung should do. Jeongguk leans his seat back and stares at the ceiling of his Audi. 

It really had been a while since he and Taehyung actually gone out on a date. Most of their lives revolved around academics nowadays. With life making it harder and harder for them to meet up, the only way Jeongguk could have a legitimate reason to spend more time with Taehyung was to declare in Computer Science asap and take the same classes as Taehyung. If that were possible. 

That moment, his phone vibrates with a text from Yoonoh.  _ [Wanna check my code for 60B project? Just merged it in our shared repository.] _

Jeongguk grunts as he pulls his seat back upright and turns the ignition back on. He’s just about to go back home alone, when his phone actually rings. Thinking it’s Yoonoh, Jeongguk picks up without looking at the screen. 

_ “Hello, Mr. Jeon.” _

Jeongguk stares at his phone screen. Instead of Yoonoh, it’s his family’s lawyer.

“It’s been a while, Mr. Han.” Jeongguk murmurs, driving his car out of the parking lot and into the streets.

_ “I am calling for the same reason I called you five years ago. I just wanted to let you know that the voting season’s debates are this weekend, and that you may have news reporters asking you about your political stance.” _

Jeongguk falls into silence. 

_ “Please do not give them any information. In hard-to-handle situations, just say ‘no comment’ and go about your own way. If it gets bad, refer them to me.” _

“All right.”

_ “Thank you. Good night.” _

“Good night.”

And Jeongguk looks at his calendar. It’s an event so irrelevant to him that he had not noticed, but now that he sees it, the voting season is in a few days, a week before Taehyung is to leave for the national science conference.

Then he realizes, the entire Lim team is going to the national science conference. That means Namjoon will be there as well. Jealousy makes him sit up in his bed, leaving him surprised over his own reaction.

  
  
  



	3. Chapter 3

Taehyung stares at his calendar where a pink box has CS158 LEC highlighted in an hour. At 8 am. For 2 hours. Whoever thought CS lectures should be at 8 am needs to go deep into the mountains and beg for penance and awaken spiritually for what they’ve done to a generation of college students. He decides to skip 158 since 159’s project is due in approximately… sixteen hours, and heads to the school library.

Every school library has a cafe or even a vending machine. Taehyung is surprised to see Jeongguk standing in line at the cafe in the main library and quickly heads over to him.

Jeongguk waves warmly at him. “Good morning, seonbae!”

“Hi, Jeongguk.” There are so many people in line for their morning coffees and breakfasts, that it’s almost hard to hear Jeongguk’s voice separately. 

“Uh… don’t you have 158 lecture right now?”

Taehyung shakes his head. “I have a project in 159 due at midnight. That’s priority-” and he realizes it’s been awhile since he’s seen Jeongguk at all. He frowns and recalls how Namjoon had asked him out for dinner, and that he had to call Jeongguk to cancel the ride. He also remembers how absolutely  _ curt  _ he had been, saying what he wanted and hanging up. 

“Seonbae?” Jeongguk peers carefully into Taehyung’s face.

“Shit, Jeongguk. Sorry about yesterday. That was really curt- I’m not usually like that.”

Jeongguk laughs. “No, of course, you’re not. Don’t worry about it. I understand.”

Taehyung feels terribly uneasy. Jeongguk makes everything seem fine, and Taehyung isn’t sure if Jeongguk actually feels this way, or if he’s being defensive.

“I won’t do that next time; I was just really stressed about the projects.”

“Right?!” Jeongguk nods fervently. “Aren’t you glad we have no school tomorrow?”

Taehyung feels like he’s been dunked in ice water. Had he accidentally slept the entire day last night instead of a power nap? Was today actually Friday and not Thursday? “Whatdayisittoday?”

“It’s Thursday. But it’s the administrative holiday tomorrow. We have a three-day weekend.”

Suddenly, life feels amazing. So fucking amazing. “No way.” Taehyung says in a hushed voice.

Jeongguk pulls out his phone and shows him the academic calendar. “How did you not know this? Doesn’t anybody tell you that there is no lecture on Friday?”

“...Maybe? But I seriously didn’t know-” Taehyung’s face brightens and Jeongguk literally sees the shadows on Taehyung’s face disappear. Jeongguk’s heart skips a beat when Taehyung jumps into his arms and hugs the air out of him. 

“Oh my god, yes, yes, YESSSS!” Taehyung shrieks. 

The girl behind them gives him a funny look. 

Taehyung takes and points at Jeongguk’s phone, showing her the screen. “See? It’s the 3-day weekend!!!”

At that, the girl melts into little giggles as well, and Jeongguk hastily retrieves his phone from Taehyung before his boyfriend starts going down the line with it to show everyone how the 3-day weekend has come when they all needed it the most. 

“Ok. I’m gonna work my ass off so I can actually enjoy my weekend. Jeongguk- you have the 60B project due tonight, right?”

Jeongguk suddenly feels more motivated than he was yesterday, thanks to Taehyung’s sudden outburst of energy. “Yeah.”

“How about we meet at the Engineering library tonight? It’s open till 12 am, and we can just all sit together and finish our projects.”

“Sounds good.” Jeongguk nods, and Taehyung starts walking backward to enter the library. 

“See you there!”

“Ok, hyung!!” And Jeongguk’s heart does a little thrummy dance.

  
  
  


Lunch time. 

CS 159 is a bitch, but a nicer one than 158. It’s still a bitch, and Taehyung closes his eyes in horror when his compiler tells him he has 1033 errors. 

“Oh god, save me.” Hoseok whispers, as he stares at Taehyung’s screen.

“Debug it.” Taemin reads through the error statements. “All of these errors are from… line 159?” 

“Part B.”

“Oh shit- I got it.” Hoseok shrieks and takes Taehyung’s laptop and starts debugging. 

Taemin lounges back on the seat and watches Hoseok make corrections to his code. “I think I might’ve already killed myself if we didn’t have Friday off this week.”

“Seriously. I can’t wait.” Hoseok groans. 

Taehyung starts grinning like an idiot as soon as this news comes back to him. 

“But what asshole in the administration decides to put the school holiday the weekend before spring break? It’d be so much nicer if it were in February when we actually need it!” Taemin complains.

“Whatever. At least it’s here.” Taehyung whispers, rubbing his eyes tiredly and tipping his head back on the chair. 

That moment, his eyes meet Namjoon’s who tips his head sideways to meet Taehyung’s eyes. Dimples cave in the alpha’s cheeks as he smiles and Taehyung perks up and immediately nods back. “Uh, hi, seonbae.”

Taemin and Hoseok look up, and then back at Taehyung, then back at the screen where the code is still running. 

“Hi! You look less dead than yesterday.” 

Taehyung smiles. “Yes- thanks to you!!” 

On the table is a half-eaten lunch box full of pasta leftovers from the night before when Namjoon had treated Taehyung to dinner. 

“Oh. That looks really good.” Namjoon jokes and Taehyung laughs. 

“Right? I made it!” 

“Funny. It looks just like the alfredo that Levali’s Italiano serves.”

Taemin and Taehyung exchange a glance. Taehyung giggles and looks at Namjoon’s lunch box. “Where are your leftovers, seonbae?” 

“A friend staying over had them for breakfast.”

Taehyung makes a face. “Pasta for breakfast?”

“He’s jetlagged.” Namjoon shrugs. “He said it was his dinner and is probably asleep right now.”

And that moment, the code  _ finally  _ completes running, and outputs, [ passed part A, B, D, but not C ] Hoseok shouts. “TAEHYUNG! That solved it! We just need to finish implementing part C!!!!” 

  
  
  
  


Seokjin stares at the clock on Namjoon’s desk. It’s 2pm but he feels like it’s 2am. He arrived back in his home country for the first time in three years, just yesterday. 

Determined to get his body in sync with the time here, Seokjin forces himself upright and out of bed to make some coffee. When he shuffles out of his room and down the stairs, his bodyguard and secretary, Soojung, is talking animatedly with Kyungri. 

“Oh, you’re awake?” Kyungri asks, getting up to greet him.

Seokjin gives them a tired nod and pours himself some coffee. “I need to be awake for the debate this Sunday. Soojung, can you kick me awake if I fall asleep before 10pm tonight?”

Soojung grins happily. “Sure.”

“Do you want some food?” Kyungri asks and Seokjin shakes his head. 

“No thank you. I’m still full from Namjoon’s leftover pasta.” He scrunches his toes into the carpet and looks at his phone. “The news is going nuts about the upcoming debate.”

Soojung shrugs. “Nobody thought the omega bill would have enough proponents to even spark a debate. Turns out the Kim and Kang family did a great job persuading some pure alpha families to this side.” 

Seokjin scrolls down his phone. “Yeah. I didn’t expect the Shin family would come over, but they did.” 

“Which side is the Kwon family?” Kyungri asks. “Namjoon’s father seemed to be having a difficult time with them.

Seokjin peers at his phone. “They’re undecided. So far, Shin, Shim, Kim, Kang, and Lee are for. Byun, Choi, Jeon, Moon, Oh, and Ok are against. Bae, Park, Hwang, Jung, Lim, and Kwon are undecided.”

Soojung falls silent. “But even this isn’t a good indicator of what will happen in the end. Nobody knows how many against families will turn to for families and vice versa.”

“You’re right.” Seokjin sighs, putting his phone down on the sofa next to them. “I feel like this is going to be a long battle. Devisive acts like this omega welfare bill only get the desired majority of 11 to 6 when the families’ votes become anonymous after two revotes.”

Kyungri frowns and peers at Seokjin. “Are you nervous?”

“Of course I am.” Seokjin says softly.

Soojung hands him a sewing kit and an orange peel she had just eaten the orange out of. “Here.”

Seokjin takes it and promptly begins suturing it back whole again. Kyungri sighs. “Wow, well, if that calms you… you do you, Dr. Kim.”

“I think… we need to pre-game on Saturday.” Seokjin says, as he starts deep suturing the orange peel.

“Pre-game?” Soojung asks.

“Like, buy a bottle or two of wine or something. Not enough to get a hangover, but enough for me to mellow out before I completely start unraveling on Sunday morning before the debate.”

Kyungri tries not to laugh, but a chuckle escapes her. “We can definitely do that. I can take you to the grocery store nearby and we can buy some wine and roast on Saturday.” 

  
  


Jeongguk and Yugyeom are enjoying afternoon mocha lattes and green tea lattes out on the glade, where the grass is dry and a beautiful green. Yugyeom didn’t want to sit here, (“there could be bugs. What if I stand up and there’s crushed beetle on my buttcheek?!). However, he forgot about his complaints when Jeongguk says with a very straight face, “I feel like my relationship with Taehyung seonbae is at a standstill. How does relationship development happen?” 

Yugyeom stares in disbelief at the actual question Jeongguk has just asked. Jeongguk waits for Yugyeom to speak, looking at his best friend in the eye. 

“Do you still call him seonbae?”

Jeongguk’s lack of response is an answer enough, and Yugyeom sighs dramatically. “Ok, I’m going to be really honest here, but the only reason we’re still friends,” He points at himself and Jeongguk, “is because you don’t talk about the deep shit in your life, and I don’t question it. Basically, we can be friends because you’re an asshole and I can deal with assholes.”

Jeongguk laughs in spite of himself. “Are we going to start talking about deep shit, now?”

“Yeah. Romantic relationships are pretty deep.” Yugyeom thinks for a bit, or pretends by drinking his tea with his pinky up. “Usually.” He smacks his lips and Jeongguk looks like he wants to punch Yugyeom’s tea out of his hands. “Well, the one you had with Ahyeong a few years ago really wasn’t that deep. It was just a ton of fucking.” Jeongguk is rolling his eyes so hard that Yugyeom’s question catches him off guard. “So why are you not fucking Taehyung seonbae? Even though it is physical, it honestly is a way of furthering a relationship.”

Jeongguk hates it when Yugyeom puts him in the spot, but Yugyeom is probably the only one in the world who can do it. He falls silent, sipping his mocha latte for something to do. “Hmm.” He hums.

Yugyeom promptly answers for him. “You want a trusting relationship with seonbae, but you’re scared.”

“It’s not a bad thing to wait to see if the relationship is or isn’t purely physical attraction.” Jeongguk points out. “Besides, we are  _ literally wayyyy too busy.  _ Busy enough that we could be solving homework problems in the time we have sex.”

Yugyeom makes the ugliest face earth has ever seen. “Shut the fuck up, Jeongguk. And I think the sex is the least of your problems. It’s your dislike of sharing your  _ thoughts  _ and  _ opinions.  _ It’s a great trait to have as a politician, although you seem to have grown it because of your past-”

Jeongguk bristles in spite of himself. “Yugyeom-”

“Both of you are so fucking academic and busy that you guys are stuck in the prolonged honeymoon phase where both parties are too in love to show their less perfect parts and be vulnerable.”

Jeongguk falls silent.

“You guys need to communicate more.” Yugyeom makes a motion, chopping the air with the blade of his hand like he’s said something super decisive.

“We talk!” Jeongguk protests.

“Not talk. Communicate and understand more.” Yugyeom lets out a very long exaggerated sigh. “Jeon Jeongguk. Humans can’t live alone. Relationships are what keep us happy and alive. If you continue being so scared of other people, you’re not only going to lose seonbae, but you’re always going to be alone.”

“How is that any different from how I was ever since I was born?” Jeongguk questions, picking on a sprig of grass, dissecting it into slivers.

Silence is thick between them until Yugyeom calmly replies, “Because he was the one who asked to hold your hand.” 

  
  
  
  


7 pm is dark and quiet when Taehyung finally completes porting the code. Both Taehyung and Namjoon finish earlier than expected and they hug over completed graphs and spreadsheets. 

“We should go and celebrate.” Namjoon says, but Taehyung’s face falls.

“I have a compsci project due today at midnight, and we’re still not done.”

Namjoon’s eyes widen comically, like it’s his project instead of Taehyung’s. “You should go, then. Where are you meeting them at?”

“Engineering library!” Taehyung waves. “See you later, hyung! Or maybe even at the conference.” With that, Taehyung rushes off.

  
  


 

 

Jeongguk and Yoonoh are at one side of the table of the Engineering library, working on their 60B project, while Taehyung, Hoseok, and Taemin are at the other. Both teams are frantic because both have their projects due in approximately 16 minutes and 52 51 50 seconds.

“God, it’s taking forever.” Taemin hisses. 

Taehyung nods. “It’s to be expected, since we were told to code the slowest scenario.”

“Why the hell are we coding the worst case scenario?!” Hoseok shrieks as the code continues to run. “What if it doesn’t finish running by 12am?”

Taehyung’s mouth thins into a grim line. “We abort the running process at 11:59:30 pm and submit what we have and leave it to god.” 

On the other side of the table, Jeongguk and Yoonoh are making changes to some of the arithmetic that is throwing off corner cases. 

It’s a common sight at the engineering library. As if to make fun of the engineering students who have no lives and always pull all-nighters, the engineering library is the only library that is open until 2am every night. It is also the only library where they can talk, or even scream, 

Such as how Hoseok does when the code outputs, [ hooray, you’ve passed all test cases. ] at approximately 11:59:28pm.

“OHMYGOSHHH!!!” Hoseok shouts and Taehyung takes the computer to himself and immediately begins submitting the project via command line. Taemin is close to biting his nails off as Taehyung types in their student IDs, and types the command line for submit. 

$Submit proj3

You have successfully submitted proj3 at 11:54:33 with ID(s) 202335 202105. 

Hoseok melts to the carpeted library floor and rolls under the desk. Taemin looks blankly up at the ceiling. Taehyung quickly skirts over to the 60B students. “What’s going on?” He asks, and Jeongguk points at the line of code. 

“We’re getting that-” Yoonoh starts, but Taehyung has seen that error before. 

He immediately says, “Run that through the university servers. If it passes there, you’re done. I think it’s because Yoonoh’s computer is a windows machine and it encodes integers differently from linux machine.”

Unlike 159 projects, 60B projects don’t have issues with runtime. However, servers are usually slower as more people utilize them. It takes three full minutes of compiling and running, but when the machine outputs, [ all test cases passed ] 

Jeongguk types submit at the speed of light. 

$Submit proj 4-2

You have successfully submitted proj4-2 at 11:59:57 with ID(s) 200142. 

“Oh fuck.” Yoonoh whispers hoarsely, grabbing onto Jeongguk like a koala. 

Jeongguk, in turn, hugs Taehyung hard. “That’s messed up. How are we supposed to know that?!” Jeongguk chokes and Taehyung pats his boyfriend’s hair. 

“Well, that’s why project 4-2 for 60B has the lowest average historically.” Hoseok sighs.

“Is this going to happen again?” Yoonoh whispers to the upperclassmen.

“Most likely.” Taemin groans.

“Well, we’re done with everything that’s due before the three-day weekend.” Hoseok sighs, and Taehyung jerks out of his seat. “It’s Friday right now, isn’t it!”

Taemin announces, “I think this calls for a celebratory midnight snack. Does anybody want to go grab ice cream and cookies at Dujun seonbae’s cookie shop?”

So it is. The five of them head downtown in Jeongguk’s car and grab cookies and ice cream. Taehyung, who is usually so tired after projects, has enough energy to laugh when Jeongguk gets ice cream on his nose and eat his fair share of sugar. 

“Hey, Taehyung. How do you know Namjoon seonbae?” Taemin suddenly asks. 

“We’re in Lim Labs.” Taehyung replies. 

“He was kinda flirting with you, you know?” Hoseok waggles his eyebrows, and Taehyung loses the feeling in his fingers, Jeongguk becomes very focused on a chocolate chip in his cookie, and Yoonoh starts looking like an awkward bunny.

“N-no we weren’t!” Taehyung retorts, too conscious of the fact that Jeongguk is right next to him. “He’s just always like that.”

“People who act like that are flirting. Namjoon seonbae rarely talks to anybody, from what I hear.” 

“What did he do?” Jeongguk asks, looking genuinely curious.

Taemin laughs while Taehyung feels his stomach sink a little. “Oh- he and Taehyung were just laughing over an inside joke.”

That moment, Taemin’s phone rings and takes him out of the conversation. “I’m out with friends.” He says to what presumably sounds like his roommate, worried about why Taemin isn’t back yet. Meanwhile, the group moves onto a different topic (about the upcoming spring break in a week).

Taehyung inches his hand beneath the table and locks his fingers with Jeongguk’s. Jeongguk makes no visible sign of notice, besides squeezing Taehyung’s hand once, and letting go. 

When they finally get up to leave, it turns out that Yoonoh and Taemin live within walking distance. “I can drive you up to your house, Hoseok seonbae.” Jeongguk offers, and Hoseok looks like he just saw an angel.

“Oh my god, yes please!”

Hoseok’s house is really a bit away from the cookie shop, and he thanks Jeongguk once more before he disappears into his frat.

“I can drop you off, too.” Jeongguk murmurs to Taehyung. 

“...Sure. Uh, Jeongguk?” Taehyung whispers, meekly. Gosh, all Jeongguk’s been doing is drive him around, making sure he’s fed and healthy, and studying with him the past two months. Taehyung feels terrible because all he’s doing is basically apologize. 

“Yeah, seonbae.” Jeongguk nods as he focuses on the dark streets as he backs up the car.

“Regarding Namjoon seonbae, I didn’t flirt with him.” 

And for the first time, Jeongguk doesn’t say ‘ _ oh don’t worry about it, it’s fine.’  _ It’s a bit unnerving for Taehyung who’s so used to Jeongguk just saying everything is fine. 

“If I did, I didn’t do it with the idea of flirting- I don’t even know what flirting really is!” Taehyung tenses and stares at his hands in his lap. “I wouldn’t do that. Not when I have you.”

The sudden confession makes Jeongguk lose all his attempts to act like everything was fine. In the time Taehyung was apologizing, they’ve already arrived at Brewed Awakening. Jeongguk turns off the ignition, and purses his lip for a little while as Taehyung waits for his response.

“I’ve been jealous.” Jeongguk whispers, so softly that Taehyung isn’t sure that he actually heard.

“What.” Taehyung asks incredulously.

Trying to say it was hard, but saying it is easy as pie. “I’ve been jealous,” Jeongguk repeats, a bit louder. “Because you two seem to spend so much time together, and everytime I see you two leave, you watch him go first with this smile on your face before you come to me.”

Taehyung bites the inside of his lip before the excuses come flooding out. 

“I know it’s my problem, and that being in a relationship doesn’t mean we get to interfere with each other’s lives. ...but when I saw you two leave the building last night, with his arm around your shoulders...”

Taehyung stares at him. It’s difficult to see each other’s faces in the dim orange streetlight outside Jeongguk’s Audi, but Jeongguk can see the anguish in Taehyung’s face.

“Sorry.” Taehyung whispers. “It won’t happen again.”

“I just interpreted it that way.” Jeongguk shakes his head feeling ever self-deprecating. “He’s your labmate. You have your friends, just like I have mine. This is my issue-”

“No. We haven’t been spending enough time together because of school, and that’s why...” Taehyung murmurs, and a sudden idea pops into his head. He whips sideways and Jeongguk jerks a little from how quick the movement was.

“I need to grab some things, Jeongguk. Toothbrush, stuff like that.” Taehyung says, voice flooding with excitement and relief. “Did you have plans for this 3-day weekend?”

“N-not particularly?” 

“Then can I stay over at your house for two nights?”

The implication in Taehyung’s eyes and words is real, and Jeongguk feels his mouth go dry. 

“Jimin knows we’re dating, now. I can stay over.” Taehyung repeats, his voice lilting a tiny bit and a bit quieter.

Jeongguk slowly nods. “Yes. Of course. Stay with me.” He says, and Taehyung gives him such an indulgent kiss that knocks the ground from beneath him, that he barely hears Taehyung say, 

“I’ll be back in five minutes!” 

And the door shuts with a dull ‘thwack’.

Great. Jeongguk smushes his face in his hands, trying to calm the arousal down. 


	4. Chapter 4

It’s a badly choreographed dance as Jeongguk and Taehyung make their way into Jeongguk’s apartment, grabbing and kissing like there’s no tomorrow. Jeongguk may have pushed Taehyung into the door, and Taehyung might have stepped on Jeongguk’s feet, but they somehow did manage to get on Jeongguk’s bed in one piece.

“Did you have to wear something so complicated?!” The sheer frustration of having to undo every button of Jeongguk’s shirt makes the task even harder.

“Sorry- didn’t know this was going to happen tonight.” Jeongguk laughs breathlessly and resorts simply undoing the top three or four buttons. His abdominals flex and stretch as he lifts his back off the bed to pull it off of himself like a t-shirt. The process musses up his hair and Taehyung nearly chokes on his spit when their eyes meet, Jeongguk’s gaze hooded and heavy.

All this time, from grabbing his suppressants and toothbrush and some underwear,, getting in the car, and driving back up to get into the apartment with Jeongguk, Taehyung had been running on autopilot and instinct. It’s the stark difference between their physiques that kind of brings him back to reality, that makes him realize, _oh this is really happening._

It doesn’t take long for both of them to get rid of all their clothes, and the room is absolutely saturated with Jeongguk’s pheromones. The air is smoky, heavy, and warm like a fire on the snowiest of days. Taehyung feels kind of drunk on it, head turning into Jeongguk’s palm when Jeongguk cups his cheek.

His eyes glued to Taehyung’s, Jeongguk presses a single lubed finger into the tight wet heat between Taehyung’s legs. It takes a fair bit of effort for Taehyung not to grimace at the intrusion. It doesn’t feel that good. Not really. It doesn’t really hurt, either, and realistically, it’s just a really strange feeling down there.

“You’re too tense.” Jeongguk murmurs, and Taehyung stares at him incredulously.

“Do I have control over this?! Just try two fingers-”

“Uh… okay?” Jeongguk squeezes in a second finger, and Taehyung blinks- it still feels strange at first- and then dull pain starts spreading down his grown and lower thighs. 

“Ow- wait-"

And he nearly bites his tongue off when Jeongguk immediately takes the tip of Taehyung’s cock into his mouth, breathes through his nose, swallows saliva down to work his throat open, and dives down, flat of his tongue easing Taehyung’s shaft into his mouth.

A sharp cry rings out in the bedroom as Taehyung arches hard, hips jumping up. “Wait- Jeongguk- I-” He chokes, and loses control of his body, automatically holding his breath as he comes. Jeongguk tastes Taehyung in his mouth and opens his mouth to let the cum drip into the wastebasket nearby.

The orgasm relaxes Taehyung’s body, leaving him limp and boneless on the mattress, vision still spotted with white. But Jeongguk isn’t done yet, and he can move his fingers with a lot more ease than before. Taehyung lets out a weak moan from oversensitivity. “I’m ready now.”

“Why are you so rushed?” Jeongguk snarls, because no, Taehyung’s body doesn’t seem that ready yet.

“You don’t seem to understand I’m already yours.” Taehyung snaps, or tries with what remains of his shredded voice, stripped with need. “You think Namjoon seonbae is a rival?”

Possessiveness is a _huge_ trait that sets alphas aside from non-alphas. It doesn’t look like Taehyung knows how his words affected Jeongguk.

“No.” Jeongguk denies, trying desperately not to pop a knot. That would be _suuuper_ inconvenient. “You’re your own. And please don’t talk about another alpha when we’re having sex, seonbae.”

“I want to be yours.” Taehyung argues. “You keep doing that, calling me seonbae, keeping our relationship at a certain point,”  Taehyung tries to say, and instead chokes when Jeongguk expertly hooks his fingers inside him. It takes an embarrassingly short amount to time to get Taehyung’s softened cock back erect again, all with Jeongguk massaging his prostate and sucking hickies into the left side of his ribcage.

“Then what do you want me to call you?” Jeongguk asks, and it’s ridiculous how placid he looks. But Taehyung doesn’t know that the more turmoil Jeongguk feels internally, the more placide he gets outwardly.

“Call me- h-hyung!” Taehyung tries, his voice cracking when Jeongguk stretches out his rim, now elastic from so much prep.

This kind of relationship isn’t one Jeongguk is used to. Hell, Jeongguk isn’t used to sincere, honest, straight-forward people like Taehyung. The type of people Jeongguk deals with on a daily basis are either after his wealth and trying to get on his good side, or trying to pull him down the rungs of society, off the pedestal he didn’t ask for but got automatically as a pure alpha. Taehyung is another human being, which means he has things that he wants, which could easily motivate him to betray him when time came.

The last time Jeongguk opened his heart, somebody gave it away to the world and the media.

And yet, Jeongguk still wants to try.

“Fuck, fuck,” Taehyung is begging at this point, “Jeongguk- stop, teasing-”

It brings Jeongguk back down to Earth. “I’m prepping you just in case,” He smiles grimly, easily fitting in a third finger alongside the others in Taehyung’s ass, “I might pop a knot.”

Oh. “...Where’s the condom?” Taehyung asks, arousal suddenly plummeting when he realizes Jeongguk can indeed pop a knot. Even though he is on suppressants, that doesn’t guarantee a 0% chance pregnancy. Much to his relief, however, Jeongguk picks a small square packet off the sheets next to them.

It takes a ridiculous amount of lube and a ton of (much-needed) prep. Jeongguk is so strung out at this point that he hisses as he sheathes himself with the condom. Taehyung’s hole is red, yielding, and hot when Jeongguk prods it with his cock.

Up close, there are tiny specks of amber in Taehyung’s eyes. Jeongguk watches Taehyung carefully as he begins sheathing himself in slowly.

Taehyung’s mouth drops open, a strangled moan punching itself out of his chest.

Tears from hypersensitivity roll down his cheeks and Jeongguk struggles to not move until Taehyung says he can. That’s not exactly what Taehyung wants though, and he impatiently interlaces his fingers behind Jeongguk’s neck and pulls him for a lip-bruising kiss. He’s just about to tell Jeongguk to fucking get a move on it, when Jeongguk accepts one of his requests.

“Taehyungie hyung.”

It’s such a loving tone that Jeongguk calls his name with, and Taehyung turns his face out of the pillowcase to make eye contact. Jeongguk looks terribly conflicted and it makes him forget about all the mess that’s going on between his legs right now.

“I’m really bad at trusting.” Jeongguk flattens his palm out over Taehyung’s lower belly, and Taehyung freezes. The touch is unsettlingly intimate. His palm is hot, calloused, and solid over what defines Taehyung as an omega. This relationship was pretty dangerous to begin, rationally speaking, but Taehyung forgets about rationale when Jeongguk looks at him with eyes that beg for love and respect. “But I want to try again.” Jeongguk whispers, throat tightening.

Taehyung tastes grief, desperation, and love in the air from Jeongguk’s pheromones as he answers with a kiss, taking Jeongguk’s face in his hands like he’s handling porcelain. It’s not like their usual carnal kissing. It’s slow, gentle, and yielding. It’s the kind of intimacy that scares the hell out of Jeongguk, but he still reciprocates. Tears start anew in Taehyung’s dark brown eyes.

“ _Jeongguk-_ ” Taehyung whimpers as the bed creaks with the force that Jeongguk pounds Taehyung with. Oh he’s close, so close- and Jeongguk somehow starts thrusting faster just as Taehyung starts coming, so hard that his thighs knock back and toes curl in.

It’s a purely physical response as Taehyung starts crying from the sheer amount of pleasure as Jeongguk basically pounds out his orgasm, while starting to knot. The base of his cock inflates, stretching Taehyung’s rim out further. In the haze of pleasure, Taehyung gets vaguely scared that it won’t stop, then nearly loses his mind when the pressure Jeongguk’s knot presses down on his already oversensitive prostate.

Jeongguk pants, and flips himself and Taehyung gently and carefully so that Taehyung can lie on top of him while his knot shrinks. Taehyung nuzzles at Jeongguk’s chest, taking his time to collect his breath. He does nearly cry again when Jeongguk languidly cards his fingers through his hair. Who knew, that an alpha would fall in love with him?  
  
  
  
  


Namjoon stares at the kitchen table piled with sutured whole tangerines. “Are you bored, Seokjin hyung?”

Seokjin makes a mild noise, eating another tangerine while suturing another one. If it weren’t for the blue stitches, Namjoon would think that somehow, he still had the box of tangerines he had bought for Seokjin when the latter first arrived.

“Do you want to visit the hospital? Kyungsoo just messaged me..” Namjoon sighs.

Seokjin immediately stands up, hands still ferociously suturing the tangerine peel back together. “YEAH.” He says through the mouthful of tangerine.

The City Hospital is very close to the University. Many of the students and alums continue their careers at the hospital as medical interns and physicians. Kyungsoo was one of them. Having graduated a year before Seokjin, he has just one more year to complete his residency.

Seokjin struts in, hands behind his back and puffing his chest out.

“What’s wrong with him.” Kyungsoo asks (it’s a rhetorical question, though) calmly as Seokjin puffs his chest out.

“Sorry. You can ignore him.” Namjoon apologizes. “He got his license as a General Surgeon last year.”

“Astounding.” Kyungsoo says.

Seokjin isn't very appreciative of this compliment. “Show some more excitement!”

“I thought you had school, Namjoon-ssi.”

“Admin holiday.” Namjoon replies as Seokjin squawks indignantly at the lack of attention he is given.

Namjoon lowers his voice. “Any news from Kai?”

Kyungsoo shakes his head, eyes focused on the hallway. “The last I got from him said it was getting harder to send messages to us. He thinks he’s being watched.”

“Is he safe?”

“We’d know for sure if he weren’t. He also told us to keep an eye on some of the warehouses, that he thought there are plans to do something-” Kyungsoo whips around. “Where is Seokjin.”

Namjoon sighs. “...He probably got carried away on his way here. Where’s the NICU?”

“Oh- it’s just one hallway that way.”

Just as expected, Seokjin is pressed to the glass at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, looking lovingly and worriedly at the tiny babies in their little beds connected to tons and tons of machinery within the unit.

“I was curious, though.” Kyungsoo ponders as he watches Seokjin coo silently at a baby near the window. “Why general surgeon? Wasn’t Seokjin interested in ob/gyn?”

“His parents told him they wouldn’t pay for his tuition.”

“I know that part, but I thought Seokjin left to travel to clear his head. Didn’t he say he was going to fund the tuition himself and get loans if he needed to become a pediatric surgeon?”

“You’re sharp, Kyungsoo hyung.” Namjoon grins. “That’s Seokjin hyung’s story to tell, but let’s say the travel left him motivated enough to become a general surgeon.”

  
  
  


Jimin is bored. He reads Taehyung’s message again, and wrinkles his nose at how many typos there are. _[ill be at jengguk’s for the weekenff.]_ It looks like he typed it while he was being kissed to death.

Jimin’s probably not wrong. The house feels empty without Taehyung.

“Maybe I should try heading out?” He murmurs to himself. March is warmer, and the air less humid. Walking isn’t too difficult as long as he takes short breaks. So for the first time in a while, Jimin heads over to the grocery store.

The air is crisp and still cool. The fresh air is so nice- Jimin grins into his hoodie and adds a little skip in his step. The grocery store isn’t as full as it usually is, probably because it’s so early on Saturday. He picks up some vegetables, some bread, and decides to splurge on a bottle of wine he liked since he was 18.

 _“Rosé. It’s a good wine to start with.”_ That was what his ex boyfriend had told him. _“It’s usually not too high in alcohol content, and it tastes alright. It’s also very pretty. Like me.”_

Jimin scoffs at the memory, fondness filling his heart as he chooses the very brand of bottle he had when he turned a legal age. The same bottle his boyfriend had gifted him.

Two men are nearby, selecting a bottle of wine as well. The shorter man (they’re both pretty tall), whines a little when his friend picks up a bottle. “Namjoon, just because you and Kyungri like dry wines doesn’t mean Soojung and I do, too!”

“If you want to drink fruity wine, go buy yourself some Ocean Spray cranberry juice, Seokjin.”

At that moment, Jimin nearly drops his bottle of wine. _‘Seokjin’ is a fairly common name, you’re being stupid,_ Jimin tells himself.

But when he sees the two people behind him, he really does drop his bottle of wine. The sound of breaking glass echoes through that aisle, bringing both the man named Namjoon and the man named Seokjin’s attention to Park Jimin.

The scent of rosé is stifling, almost overpowering Kim Seokjin’s own pheromones as his eyes widen upon seeing Jimin. Their eyes meet, and Jimin starts to run.

Seokjin is faster, grabbing Jimin by his wrist as Jimin tries to fly past. Namjoon stares at astonishment as the orange-haired male pushes Seokjin as hard as he can in the chest, making Seokjin fall back onto the ground.

“Seokjin!” Namjoon gasps, and Seokjin jumps up to chase after the male.

However, Jimin is already gone by the time Seokjin reaches the exit of the grocery store.

Namjoon manages to reach Seokjin who looks shellshocked. “Seokjin, who was that?” He pants. Instead of answering him, Seokjin starts running after Jimin.

 

If Jimin wasn’t so familiar with the terrain of this entire city, down to its alleys and little pathways, he would have managed to lose Seokjin. Not with his leg slowing him down.

Jimin immediately locks himself in the house, grabs his phone, and almost calls Taehyung. His fingers pause over the keypad, because it’s not like Taehyung can help in this situation right now.

  
  
  


Taehyung really cannot help in this situation right now. He can barely walk. His entire body is cramping thanks to how tense his body had been. For the first time in his life, he’s considering at least doing yoga if that is what it takes. Yet, part of him revels in the ache.

Unsurprisingly, after a hectic week complete with their all-nighter of projects and fucking, Jeongguk is still asleep and Taehyung is awake at 4 pm. Deciding that a shower is very much needed, Taehyung heads over to the bathroom (nearly cracking his skull when he slips on a stray piece of clothing).

He takes out an underwear, and checks the small slot of his phone case to make sure that the E-pill is still there. Yep. All good. He pops a suppressant pill in his mouth, and submerges his achy body in the blue water fizzing with a bathbomb he found beneath the sink.

He spends such a long time submerged in the water, that he expects Jeongguk to be up and about when he leaves. Yet, when he returns to the room, Jeongguk is asleep on his side, mouth slightly open, his right hand a soft curve on the mattress.

Taehyung wipes the last droplets of water from his hair, leans on the doorway, and watches how simply _young_ Jeongguk looks when he’s asleep. It’s not that Jeongguk looks particularly old, but with his face relaxed in sleep, he looks like a baby.

Maybe that’s what prompts Taehyung to do so. He slides his index finger into the open curve of Jeongguk’s hand, and presses ever so lightly on his palm. Jeongguk’s fingers close over his, and he blinks slowly awake.

“I didn’t mean to wake you.” Taehyung whispers. “You can sleep a bit more.”

“I’m awake.” Jeongguk rasps, but blinks blearily for the next five minutes.

Taehyung sits on the floor beside the bed, his index finger still in Jeongguk’s grasp. “This is how I used to check if my little brother and sister were still asleep when they were babies.” Taehyung’s voice is fond, his features soft in the setting sun. “If they were deep asleep, they wouldn’t respond, but otherwise, they’d hold my finger. It’s the infant grasp reflex… to increase the surface area of skinship.”

Jeongguk smiles, uninhibited and sincere.

“I haven’t seen them in nearly a decade, though.” Taehyung adds, not missing the small look of confusion that passes by Jeongguk’s eyes. The setting sun makes Jeongguk’s black eyes look a bit lighter, almost dark brown. “My parents weren’t particularly fond of me. I ended up leaving and began living with Jimin who had been a childhood friend, and luckily, Jimin’s father… wasn’t like my parents.” What an understatement, Jimin’s father was a kind, generous man who did nothing that Taehyung’s parents did to him after Taehyung’s bloodwork returned that he was an omega. Taehyung’s parents locked him away in his room for fear that someone might see their omega son, spending two full years abusing, starving, and emotionally wrecking him. Jimin’s father and Jimin dealt with the raging ball of anger and hurt that Taehyung had become as a fourteen year old. All of this goes unsaid.

“So that’s how Jimin and I are still living together.”

Jeongguk shifts a little, inching a bit closer to Taehyung and lacing his fingers. Maybe it’s that Jeongguk’s just woken up, but Jeongguk is much quieter, slower, and careful as he forms his sentences.

“You’re like brothers.”

“Pretty much.” Taehyung agrees.

“I have a brother.” Jeongguk says. “And I haven’t seen him in a while, too. He’s serving as a Sergeant Major overseas at one of this country’s army bases.”

“What’s his name?”

“Jeon Jeonghyun.” Jeongguk says, and Taehyung smells the shift in the air. A bit chillier, saltier. It tastes the same as when Jeongguk told him hours ago, _I want to try again._ Trusting.

“We’re born from different mothers. He’s twelve years older than me. My father was never in, and my mother wasn’t very maternal. So I was Jeonghyun hyung’s responsibility as soon as I was born.” Jeongguk’s eyes move towards his fingers grasping Taehyung’s index finger. “We did have caretakers, but Jeonghyun hyung always went out of his way to make sure I was eating well and going to school. He was the one person I looked up to as I grew up. But my father wanted hyung to start training and take classes to become the next representative for the Jeon family. Hyung didn’t want that, but at the same time, he didn’t want to anger father. So he enlisted in the army, which made the Jeon family look really good and proactive in serving its country.”

Jeongguk stretches out his fingers, and gently pries open Taehyung’s as well, and matches their hands absentmindedly. Taehyung’s fingers are just a bit longer and slimmer, but Jeongguk’s hand is overall a bit bigger.

“One day, he was deployed overseas on a mission. He ended up staying for a year and fell in love. The next time father ever heard about hyung was after hyung had his first daughter.

“Father immediately made up some shit about Jeonghyun hyung’s mom being ill and asked him to come back, which he did. As soon as hyung landed in the Jeon estates, father burned his passport and travel documents, and used his military connections to fix Jeonghyun hyung’s location back within the country.

“Well, Jeonghyun hyung realized he’d lose the chance to return to his family overseas, so he worked stuff out with his own military connections, and decided to leave to never return.

“And me? I was fifteen and way too fucking naive. I had just gotten the one person I loved back close to me, and he was planning to leave. I caught him the night he was trying to escape the estates, and,” Jeongguk starts chuckling, and Taehyung gets the awful feeling it’s the exact opposite of what Jeongguk feels like. “I threatened him that I’d call father and the guards.

“I just wanted him back. I had been so lonely in the political quagmire he had left me in, and begged him to stay. He threatened me back by pulling out a gun on me and saying that I’d better get out of his way and keep my mouth shut.

“Jeonghyun hyung, who had been too sweet and kind to be born in my family, was threatening me, and I fucking actually thought he’d shoot me. I was too naive. I should’ve known that he was just bluffing- he’d never make himself an international criminal, and yet, I was scared, and let him go.

“I spent years, dreaming of that night. I couldn’t tell anyone, because Jeonghyun staying overseas when he was the heir to the Jeon empire was already a huge issue in the pure alpha community. But I couldn’t stop thinking of that night, and as soon as I made a friend that I thought I could trust, I blew everything.”

The sheer self-deprecation laced in Jeongguk’s voice is toxic.

“Told him that Jeonghyun had a family overseas, that he’d threatened me with a gun, and had left against my father’s wishes. Told him I was lonely, depressed, scared, and just wanted someone to understand.

“And the next day, the media exploded with juicy gossip about my brother and my family. The stocks under the companies my father owned dropped, and I basically made a stain on the family’s reputation. It was a huge shitshow- father was so enraged.

“Luckily, no one could prove that Jeonghyun had actually pulled a gun on his own little brother, and it did kind of die down. I did go after the guy I had trusted. Asked him why he told the world about my weaknesses. He responded, that if I wanted things to be a secret, then I’d better not trust anybody and keep my mouth shut.”

Jeongguk looks into Taehyung’s eyes. “And I agreed with what he said, until you came along.” Relief colors Jeongguk’s voice, and his voice is strained as he pulls Taehyung’s hand over to press his lips against the knuckles. “Thank god you came along.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Hi! So, school has begun for me, and i think there's a fair chance of me dying this semester.  
> \- Updates are going to be a lot slower...  
> \- and also, I've been finding writing stuff a lot harder than I expected. I feel like nothing makes sense and my writing style itself is super choppy and uneloquent. So to all my readers, every single one of you, thank you for reading such a lacking story  
> \+ I'm reading all of the comments and I really wish there was a heart button for all of them because they all mean so much to me.   
> \+ I spend a relatively short time writing chapters from what I've seen about other authors on ao3, but I spend a decent amount of time trying to answer comments without spoiling anything but getting my thoughts across clearly. So it's difficult to answer everybody, but I want you all to know that it means a lot. Thank you for reading.


	5. Chapter 5

Under stress, Kim Seokjin tends to calm himself by doing things that he’s good at, that require just the right amount of focus. He gets super talkative, slightly annoying.

Under immense pressure, though, he falls absolutely silent and becomes a total hermit.

“Hey, wanna talk about it?” Soojung pipes up from the doorway, and Seokjin finally looks up from the documents he’s reading in preparation for the debates on omega welfare the next day.

“...It’s good.” Seokjin says, and repeats it like he’s telling himself that. “It’s all good.”

“It’s obviously not.” Kyungri says, peering over Soojung’s head. “You’ve been silent all day ever since we saw that guy in the grocery store.”

Soojung is worried sick. The last time Seokjin was like this, he just disappeared with a suitcase full of clothes and books and disappeared. “Jin oppa.” She says softly, trying to coax some kind of answer out of him, even a reaction. “Did you see Jimin?”

Seokjin’s sharp intake of breath is sudden, catching in his chest as he tries to push the image of Park Jimin tearing his wrist out of Seokjin’s grip and running away like Seokjin was dangerous.

Namjoon has also come upstairs to lean on the doorframe next to Soojung to look at Seokjin in the dark room, lit with only one light stand. “Just promise me you aren’t going to do anything stupid.” Namjoon says softly.

It’s obvious that the three alphas had discussed this before they had come up to Seokjin.

“What’s stupid?” Seokjin laughs but the sound is brittle. “The debate’s at 10am tomorrow- literally in 10 hours. I don’t even have the time to do anything stupid.”

“Then go to sleep.” Soojung suggests, voice careful. “I’ll look for Park Jimin.”

Seokjin doesn’t like that one bit. “You think he’s going to be fine with an alpha he’s never seen before approaching him?”

Kyungri’s voice is acidic. She’s worried because she knows what a volatile Seokjin can do and has done- Seokjin can disappear off the face of earth without telling anybody and not giving two shits about how people near him could feel. “He obviously didn’t like _you_ approaching him.”

“Noona.” Namjoon interrupts, but Seokjin already looks ashen and sick. The look on Seokjin’s face mollifies all three alphas in the doorway, and Namjoon’s tone is softer when he continues. “Hyung, you’ve never told us what went down between you two, but I understand you’ve been looking for him for years. Leave it to Soojung- she can be unintimidating if she tries, I’m sure.”

The humor goes unnoticed as Seokjin looks back down at the pile of notes in his lap. “I’m not the person I was long ago when I left without telling anybody. I won’t do anything dumb.” He forces a smile on his face at the three of his best friends in the doorway of his room. “I just really, really need to persuade the alpha families tomorrow, and I’m honestly kind of worried I’m going to mess up.”

Soojung finally walks into Seokjin’s space, gently pries the notes from his hands, and says, “I’ll wake you up at 7am tomorrow, and give you a summary of these notes so that you can read them on the way to the debates. You’re going to be on national television, and you can’t have those dreadful dark circles on live tv.”

Seokjin manages to laugh weakly.

  
  


The morning dawns bright. The spring blue sky is crisp and the sunlight is like a bright clap when Jeongguk opens his eyes. “...Hyung?” He croaks and immediately, a light brown head of hair pokes out from his walk-in closet.

“Good morning.” Taehyung grins, giving Jeongguk a peck on the cheek. “Do you mind if I borrow some of your clothes?”

Jeongguk is totally, completely, absolutely okay with it. In fact, the fact that Taehyung now smells like him is the best way to start the morning and he’s shocked at how dumb and giddy he can be, just by seeing Taehyung in one of his sweaters. “Heck yeah, please, take whatever you want.” He croaks.

Taehyung’s heart balloons when Jeongguk says that with the utmost sincerity and complete lack of hesitation. Their gaze hang midair for a while, until Jeongguk tries to alleviate the overwhelming atmosphere. “Yeah, take my house, my money, my first-born-kid-”

Taehyung throws a cushion at Jeongguk, but proceeds to break into peals of laughter, diving at Jeongguk and giving him a tight hug. They stay like that, until Taehyung’s stomach gives a loud protesting grumble of hunger.

“Oops.” Taehyung mutters as Jeongguk finally gets up with Taehyung latched onto him like a koala.

“I’ll make something.” Jeongguk says easily, ambling about the kitchen with Taehyung on his back like it’s a daily occurrence. He clicks the television on for some background ambient noise as he always does even when he’s alone.

Taehyung’s grip around Jeongguk’s shoulders laxes when he sees the man in the television, speaking avidly about something.

“...Oh.” Jeongguk also turns his gaze to the television, then to the clock. “Yeah, debates were to start at 10am today. It’s 10:11am.”

“Yeah.” Taehyung says weakly, as he sees Kim Seokjin for the first time in years, talking about omega welfare and why it’s important.

Jeongguk doesn’t like that look on Taehyung’s face- Taehyung looks worried, and confused.

“Want me to change the channel?” Jeongguk asks softly, and Taehyung silently shakes his head, still slightly in disbelief at how Jimin’s ex is now speaking out in public in support of omegas in a society that does not want omegas.

“Jeongguk, how does this work?” Taehyung asks, weakly as he sees a strange bar chart on the side of the channel that’s fluctuating up and down as Seokjin speaks.

There’s a loud sizzle as Jeongguk flips an egg in hot oil. “Those are public real-time votes. They don’t really affect whether the policy will happen or not, and more there to reflect the public’s sentiment to keep the entire country informed as to what others think.”

Taehyung is not surprised. Alphas rule the world- the public most likely doesn’t get much of a say in these kind of things. “Then when does a policy pass?”

“The 17 alpha houses vote for or against a policy, and as soon as more than 10 houses are in favor, the policy is in. As soon as less than 7 houses are in favor, the policy is taken out of consideration.”

Seokjin finishes strong, with the bar chart showing 58% in favor of the omega welfare act. Taehyung feels like he’s sitting in a dream, even as Jeongguk comes to sit next to him on the couch in front of the television with plates full of food.

58% of the people don’t really want him dead. How that happened, he’s not sure, but he’s just so sure he’s going to start crying. Jeongguk stares as Taehyung rushes to the bathroom with phone in hand. Taehyung closes a palm over his nose and mouth, trying to calm his breath, only to realize that it’s not working. He turns the faucet on with shaking hands to muffle the sounds of his sobs, as he texts Jimin,

_“ARe you seein gthe debates”_

  


Jimin is on the verge of tears. He never thought he’d be seeing Seokjin’s face ever again- and now, Kim Seokjin, broader and taller than he was five years ago, is speaking on national television for omegas like Jimin.

“Oh my god, he’s gone mad.” Jimin says without realizing he’s talking to himself. What if others target Seokjin? What if Seokjin’s fame goes down? Wasn’t Seokjin going to be a doctor? Why is he in politics?

His phone buzzes with a notification and Jimin looks down to see a text from Taehyung. _[ARe you seein gthe debates]_

Of course he is. He’s been on this channel since 8am, listening to random news and speculations about this random surgeon who is one of the main alpha house’s best friend. He’s been taking screenshots on his computer to see Seokjin again and again, and it’s so dumb because Park Jimin would never let himself see Seokjin again.

He’s on the verge of tears, but he refuses to cry.

  
  


When Taehyung comes back, a different politician against the omega welfare act is on the screen.

“Are you okay?” Jeongguk asks worriedly, handing Taehyung a napkin and some utensils as he sits back down on the couch.

“Y-yeah. Just needed to… wash my hands.”

Taehyung doesn’t feel hungry anymore. In fact, all of his attention is on the screen now that he’s hearing this politician saying everything Taehyung’s ever heard and hated about himself. It’s obvious this politician is an alpha- he holds himself in such a powerful, charismatic way, and Taehyung’s stomach churns with each hurtful, shameful comment, with each climb of the public votes in the sidebar.

“...Gosh, Taehyung can we change the channel?” Jeongguk sounds pissed.

That plants a huge seed of hope in Taehyung’s mind and he whirls in his seat, looking up at Jeongguk. “Jeongguk, what do you think of omegas?”

It was a question he didn’t know he was ever going to ask, but he was so hopeful, so happy that Jeongguk sounded pissed at this politician that didn’t want omegas like Taehyung to thrive in this society.

Jeongguk looks at Taehyung then back at the TV. “No comment.”

“C’mon-” Taehyung urges-

“I really don’t have much of an opinion on them.” Jeongguk says, his tone still pissed and frosty. “I haven’t met one, but I don’t ever want to either. It’s just that that dude is my dad. He gets so worked up about dumb stuff like this.”

In the past two seconds, Taehyung was already kind of falling apart at how Jeongguk just has this hatred-apathy towards omega, and then upon realizing that this man in the screen was Jeongguk’s father, Taehyung freezes mid-chew, and feels so sick that he barely hears what Jeongguk is saying over the din of his own heartbeat in his ears.

“It’s never going to pass… Omegas? Ha,... we never even see them… budget allocated for a demographic that doesn’t do anything…”

The loud sound of buzzing interrupts Jeongguk and brings Taehyung back to earth. On the screen of Taehyung’s insistent phone, is _Park Jimin._

“H-hello.” Taehyung stutters,

And Jimin’s voice is shaking as hard as Taehyung’s hand is. _“Tae. When are you coming home?”_

Taehyung can’t swallow, can’t talk.

 _“Can you come soonish?”_ Jimin’s voice breaks and Taehyung takes a deep breath, and looks at Jeongguk in the eyes as he says,

“Yeah. I’ll be right there.”

Jeongguk quickly collects Taehyung’s clothes in a bag, and hands it to him as Taehyung pulls on his shoes. “I’m guessing it’s an emergency?”

“Yeah-” Taehyung starts to say but Jeongguk nods, gives him a tight hug, helping out the door.

“Text me when you get home!”

“Thanks, Jeongguk.”

Taehyung isn’t sure how he got from Jeongguk’s home to his home above Brewed Awakening in less than ten minutes. His heart’s still in his eardrums when he unlocks his door, nearly bashing the door into Jimin’s face. Jimin moves back just in time, and for a split second, the two omegas stand in the hallway, frozen in confusion and shock from different situations.

And then when Jimin’s face starts to crumple, Taehyung quickly shuts the door behind himself and topple onto Jimin to hug him tightly.

Jimin starts to full-on cry, loud and uninhibited, because Seokjin is such a wonderful person who shouldn’t put himself in such situations, and because he misses Seokjin. Taehyung does the same, because the one time he thought he found someone on his side, the one time he needed the person to be okay with the fact that he was omega, wasn’t going to happen.

  
  


Even until nightfall, the entire city is bustling about the debates. News outlets are tittering madly about how a non-politician going up on debates and gathering so much public votes is completely unprecedented, and sns is buffering out of its mind with all the pictures of Seokjin.

Oh Sehun is perched on a crate, scrolling on his phone of all the recent tweet updates of the debates. “The world is going insane.” He says, as Baekhyun walks up and down a row of betas, kneeling in a dimly lit warehouse full of empty boxes. “There’s a doctor spewing shit about omega welfare, and now, we find that there’s an entire underground system of passing suppressants to omegas.”

He looks behind himself where a cargo truck full of boxes of neatly packaged, organized bottles stands, with keys in the ignition.

“Kim Jongdae,” Baekhyun says, softly, now pointing the gun at the man who looks straight up at Baekhyun like there isn’t a gunbarrel pressed against his forehead. “You know what you’re doing is illegal.”

“You busting in here, threatening us like this for the past hour, without calling the police is probably not exactly legal either. You’re having a lot of fun, aren’t you?” Jongdae asks, softly and calmly.

“Well, Jongdae, I am the police.” Baekhyun grins. “Actually, my father is, but I kind of have the same authority. Perks of being an alpha.”

Jongdae says nothing. He’s honestly less afraid when Baekhyun points the gun at him instead of one of his coworkers.

“The thing is, if I call _the_ police,” Baekhyun twirls the gun in his hand with practiced movements. “I have to hand you guys over to them, and they will do things in more civilized ways, that won’t… really get them the answers they want.” He squats down, presses the gun point-blank on Jongdae’s thigh, index finger firm in the trigger latch. “Who’s behind all this?”

Jongdae says nothing.

“I could kill you and say that a brawl broke out. I could ask Minseok to shoot me somewhere it won’t kill me.” Baekhyun winks at his own secretary.

“Please don’t.” Minseok mutters under his breath.

“And then I’d say, whoopsies, I killed one, or two, or three betas while trying to defend myself.”

It happens in a split second- Baekhyun shoots the beta next to Jongdae, straight in the head and Jongdae’s eyes widen as hot blood splashes all over him. Loud shouts and whimpers of fear and anger resounds in the warehouse.

“I could kill maybe up to four, and nobody would care. You think the police would listen to criminals like you?” Baekhyun laughs.

Jongdae grits his teeth, tears of anger washing pale tracks on his cheek in the blood of his friend dead on the ground next to him.

“What is this system? Who created it?” Baekhyun asks.

Jongdae grits his teeth. “...It’s as you see.” He says, looking at each of his enemies, one by one, from Byun Baekhyun, to Kim Minseok, and to Oh Sehun. “It’s a postal service for suppressants for omegas. I don’t know anything about other people involved, and they don’t know about me.”

Baekhyun fires, and Jongdae feels the heat sear in his leg before he feels agony.

“You’re going to have to find all of us.” Jongdae grits out, breath fast like he’s laughing, “Because nobody knows anybody else.”

So Baekhyun ends up calling the police. There isn’t point in wasting bullets if there isn’t any more information to gather. Besides, his eyes are glittering with more mischief.

“What should we do with that cargo truck?” The police ask Baekhyun.

Baekhyun is deep in thought before he replies, “Leave it. I have stuff to do with it.” He adds another command. “Do not, absolutely do not let anybody else know of what happened today, that this warehouse exists. I don’t want the others involved in the underground system finding out we have caught their scent.”

“You honestly don’t think they’d know?” Minseok makes an incredulous sound.

“Well, this cargo truck,” Baekhyun says as the police leave with the warehouse workers and Jongdae in handcuffs, “I bet it’s supposed to go somewhere. There aren’t any addresses on the boxes, so I’m guessing somebody has to drive it somewhere.”

“If it was one of those guys that got arrested, we just got ourselves in a dead end.”

“Nah, if they needed to drive it somewhere, they would have earlier. The key’s in the ignition, and this truck has been here with its boxes for the past several days according to Minseok.” Baekhyun grins. “I don’t trust Jongdae when he says that he doesn’t know anybody else in the system, but I do think everybody only has pieces of the entire puzzle. There’s someone who’s supposed to drive this stuff to a location only he knows about.”

It was a speculation, but Baekhyun was 100% right. That was how transfers worked. Given a seven day window, the packers packed the suppressants and in the last three days, a designated person would take the truck and the goods to a location only he was privy to.

Baekhyun grins. “I have a plan.”

  
  
  


A few days since they cried together in the hallway, things are relatively back to normal in Jimin and Taehyung’s life. Jimin is busy as always, and Taehyung is busy and tired as always. Suppressants do that to you- make you tired, sleepy, and exhausted.

“What are you going to do today?” Jimin asks, stretching out his leg like he always does before going to work.

“I was going to take a break, but apparently, Namjoon seonbae had something come up, so I have to go to the labs.”

“That man always has something up- didn’t you fill in for him yesterday?”

“I mean, there’s no choice-”

Jimin’s mouth opens in a little o of recollection. “The conference is next week!”

“Yeah. You forgot?” Taehyung chuckles. “Can you pick up the suppressants for me while I’m gone? I’m taking most of what I have right now so I won't have any left in my stash when I come back.”

“Sure.” Jimin nods fervently.

“Are you okay?” Taehyung asks.

“Yes. Are you?”

“I will be.”

  
  


Jeongguk knows how busy Taehyung is, but even in the busiest times, Taehyung had still met up with him just last month. Even when they both had projects due in several hours, they sat together and pushed through it together.

“It’s crunch time, so I’m busy.” Taehyung said apologetically during a rare phone call.

“I haven’t seen you in so long.” Jeongguk says softly.

“You baby, we slept together just five days ago.”

“That’s too long.”

“Yeah…” Taehyung’s voice is soft. “It is.” He isn’t sure what to make of Jeongguk right now. Jeongguk is still the nice, sweet kid who is kind, gentle, and giving. He also turned out to be against omegas and was part of a house that voted against the welfare act. “I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Can I get you anything? Lunch? Snacks? Coffee?” Jeongguk honestly just wanted to see Taehyung’s face.

“All of that is provided in our lounge.” Taehyung says, anxiety making his mouth taste bitter. Would Jeongguk still be this sweet when he found out Taehyung was an omega? “You don’t have to.”

“Okay.” Jeongguk murmurs softly.

Taehyung hangs up, and is a little jolted when somebody calls his name all the way across the hallway. “Sorry!” Namjoon quickly says as he crosses the hallway towards Taehyung. He seems slightly out of breath as he smiles apologetically. “Did I interrupt something?”

“No. I just finished talking to him.” Taehyung grins, then his eyes widen. “Seonbae, I thought you were busy today.”

“I was, but things got taken care of.” Namjoon shrugs. “The debate results are out, so…”

Taehyung knows. He knows that the omega welfare act didn’t pass due to a 8-9 with 9 houses against it.

“You must be busy.”

“Yep. I have to prepare for revotes, and-”

“Revotes?” Taehyung blinks.

Namjoon chuckles. “C’mon, just because you’re CS doesn’t mean you don’t need to know how the system works.”

“What do you mean revote?”

“Unless a proposal gets 7 or less votes, it gets voted on over and over and over again, every two weeks. There’s debates a day before those votes- not as intense and long as the ones last Sunday, but like… 10 minutes. I’ve been arranging those kind of things before I’m out of office on this conference.”

Taehyung’s lips thin. 8-9 was close. It was far better than he thought, but this was really getting his hopes up again.

“Speaking of conference,” Namjoon clears his throat, “Would you like to go to the airport together next week? I’ll pick you up.”

Taehyung shrugs. “Sure.”

Namjoon nods crisply. “Awesome.”

And the remaining five days till the conference, is them working together intensely on stuff. Taehyung starts to get a better impression of what kind of person Namjoon is. Namjoon tamps down his pheromones around other alphas, putting himself out of attention. Most alphas aren’t exactly aggressive, but they don’t go out their waves to put other alphas at ease like Namjoon does.

The night before the trip, Namjoon asks, “Where do you want to meet?”

Taehyung briefly thinks, not considering that he’s giving his location to an alpha. “I live in a loft above Brewed Awakening. We can meet in front of the cafe.”

“Hey, that’s such a nice place! Close walking distance to campus and everything.”

Taehyung laughs, and realizes he has told Namjoon where he lives, that there are two alphas that know where he lives. Surprisingly, he trusts Namjoon and nods. “It’s a great place. Thanks for offering to pick me up, Seonbae.”

“See you tomorrow, Taehyung!”

Jeongguk calls nearly 10 minutes after that interaction. “Hyung, can I drive you to the airport?”

Taehyung pauses mid-step up to his apartment. “It’s a 8am plane, Jeongguk… I have to leave by 4am-”

“I honestly don’t care.” Jeongguk manages. _I haven’t seen you for days, weeks- I miss you._ “Hyuuunnnggg…”

“I’m carpooling with people on the same flight.” Taehyung says apologetically. “I’ll skype call you first thing I get there.”

Jeongguk knows he can get possessive, that it’s a trait both spurred on by his alpha self and his own personality. He takes a deep breath, and does his best to drop it. Taehyung is an individual himself. “Okay, hyung. Have a safe flight.”

“...Sorry, Jeongguk. Oh, can you pick me up when I come back?”

Jeongguk knows it’s dumb, but even that one request lifts his mood. “YES. HYUNG, OF COURSE!! See you then! And we’ll skype call!”

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg there are still people reading this. Thank you, thank you, thank you!  
> I can’t bear to read what I wrote 6 months ago… :(  
> Anyways, here goes! Going to try to update at least 1/week
> 
>  
> 
> Not beta-ed


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